The Alfa Romeo Stelvio is the Ital­ian man­u­fac­turer’s first SUV. Jack Evans sees how it shapes out in a very com­pet­i­tive mar­ket place

WHAT’S NEW? Alfa Romeo, be­ing a man­u­fac­turer of dy­nam­i­cally ca­pa­ble ve­hi­cles, has worked hard to en­sure the Stelvio is geared to­wards ‘sporty’ driving more than other SUVS on the mar­ket to­day. As such, you’ll find it has per­fect 50/50 weight dis­tri­bu­tion, and sus­pen­sion set up to pro­vide a more dy­namic drive, rather than an overtly com­fort­able one.

They’ve also car­ried over many of the fea­tures which were pop­u­lar on the Gi­u­lia sa­loon; the gearshift pad­dles, for in­stance, are mas­sive and crafted from alu­minium, while the steer­ing rack is quicker than you’d ex­pect - another trait of the Gi­u­lia.